So that extra long weekend with the extra days off from the day job was nice. I had planned to use the time to work on the online class I’m taking and work on 3D projects and study. I got more than half way into the weekend and realized that things weren’t going to happen as I planned. I did get some relaxation time in which was good and needed. But the short week at the day job turned out to be a little stressful.
I finally got to taking the first practice test for the test for the day job. I didn’t do very well. I didn’t really have an idea of how I thought I would do when I started it so I wasn’t surprised or anything. I just didn’t do very well. I was quite a ways from passing it. So I know I need to do a bit more study before I sign up for the test. And now that I know that, I think I’m doing everything I can to avoid studying. Of course it’s like a lot of things. If I would just sit down and do it and get the test taken, it would probably take less time and effort that the time and effort I spend avoiding it.
What I did not avoid this week was working on Funkatmyer. It took me a day or two to get to him but I started, and finished his headphones. I started from a cylinder and did some extrudes and added some edge loops to get the basic shape of the part that goes over the ear. From there it was some point manipulation to adjust the shape and add some detailing. To create the strap that goes across the top I just extruded some faces from the top of the ear cover. From there it took some moving and rotating to get the bend before extruding again. As has become normal practice for me, I just modeled one side and then mirrored it over to the other side. There was a little catch with that this time. The last time I used mirror in this project I was mirroring the boot so I turned of the part to connect the geometry. It took me a couple of tries to turn the right settings back on. Here are some in progress shots. I didn’t really take any renders until I got the most of it modeled but there was still a little refining to do.
And here is Funkatmyer now all with his headphones on and also a bust shot. He’s ready for the next step I think.
And the next step. Yeah. That’s a biggie. So here’s the thing. In addition to needing some materials, he needs a rig. I want to be able to pose Funkatmyer. For that, he really needs a rig. And normally, I would do both of the rig and the materials in Maya since I’ve modeled him in Maya. However. I think I want to use him on the next Christmas card. I am planning on using resources for that that I have already created in 3DS Max. I like the materials on the things in 3DS Max and don’t really want to try to figure them out in Maya. I don’t know how well the rig will move over from Maya to 3DS Max, or vice versa the materials from 3DS Max to Maya and Arnold. Though I don’t think the materials will play nice from what I can tell from some experimenting I did this weekend. So I have a little dilemma.
I finally opened up to have a look at 3DS Max 2018 with Arnold now the additional integrated renderer. The first thing is, I’m not sure I’m liking the new interface. I know things change and supposedly for the better, but given how much effort goes into finding everything in some of these programs, changing up the interface isn’t always a better thing. And I don’t like dealing with the Arnold renderer and the materials available for it. When I set it as the default, a significant number of the standard Autodesk materials come up as not being compatible. And figuring out the measly materials available compared to what was available with the Mental Ray renderer is a bit of an effort. So I’m a little disappointed. I can get Mental Ray direct from NVIDIA with a plug-in for 3DS Max 2018 so I will probably do that to see how it works out but I’m a little pessimistic about it at the moment.
The why this matters part of this gets a little involved. Suffice to say that I have come to realize I don’t like Maya as much as I thought I did. There are some things about it that I just don’t like. I suspect some if it has to do with familiarity and habit as much as whatever aesthetic is going on. So I was thinking of going back to 3DS Max but now with the Arnold vs. Mental Ray thing I’m not so sure. And then there is Blender. Which still has it’s appeal and with the tutorials that Pluralsight have it’s even more accessible than it was. And it looks like it handles a couple of things even better than Maya or 3DS Max do, and those are very appealing.
Ah, the things we come up with to avoid doing the things we don’t want to do.
Still it is an issue. How big of an issue is still to be determined and decided on. For now I need to get to that studying stuff so I can get that test done. Then I’ll figure out what I’m going to do. I suppose at some point we should discuss the advantages and disadvantages or whatever between and free open source application and the mainstream applications. Not today.
With Funkatmyer modeled now, come back and find out what I get up to next. His rig? The scene for Walter? Something else. Who knows.